Destiny USA shooting: Police arrest suspect after man shot at mall on Black Friday

Thomas Swiney was visiting his family for Thanksgiving. He was with his mom and brother inside Destiny USA’s food court when he heard gunshots on Black Friday.

“My first thought was to get down the escalator,” said Swiney, who fell down the escalator in the chaos and suffered minor gashes on his hands and legs.

Later, while he was searching for his mom and brother in the parking lot outside the food court, there was a second wave of people streaming from inside the mall. That’s when he said he saw a man crouching in the parking lot holding a revolver. 

“He looked right at us, out in the open,” Swiney said.

He later told police what he’d seen. 

Syracuse police on Saturday announced the arrest of Kyree Truax in Friday's shooting. He’s charged with second-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, both felonies. He was also charged with second-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.

Police were expected to address the arrest at a news conference Saturday morning.

The shopping center was evacuated after the shooting inside the largest mall in New York state on the busiest shopping day of the year. 

Syracuse police responded to a call of shots fired at 7:07 p.m. and arrived on scene within seconds, according to Syracuse Police Department Chief Kenton Buckner.

Police initially thought the sounds were fireworks before finding a man in his early 20s with gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital with injuries that are not expected to be life-threatening. 

Police evacuated the mall and closed Destiny USA for the remainder of the night. The mall went from bustling to bedlam to barren in just more than an hour.

"In the early stages of this incident we thought we could've had an active shooter. It turns out that was not the case," Buckner said.

Police believe the victim was involved in a dispute with the shooter.

“This evening’s unfortunate and isolated incident at Destiny USA was between two known acquaintances and not a random act or part of any intentional threat against the property," said Pyramid Management Group, which owns Destiny USA.

Democrat and Chronicle reporter Sarah Taddeo was there seconds after the shots were fired and as a wave of shoppers fled the mall. Taddeo was entering through the food court entrance with her parents just after 7 p.m. to see a movie when dozens of people ran outside and some yelled that there was a shooting. 

"In the back of your mind you always kind of want to have a plan and know what you would do," said Swiney, of Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania. "Now it's like, I don't want to go to a shopping mall this big. Black Friday and all of that stuff, nothing you're going to buy on Black Friday is worth what happened today."

Taddeo witnessed the first police cars arrive at the food court entrance and enter the mall carrying assault-style guns. Police K-9 units headed up the escalator and a helicopter circled over the mall.

There was a gridlock of traffic exiting the mall, hamstrung by the mayhem and police presence. 

Some mall employees helped customers shelter in place, which led to groups of people fleeing the mall and other contingents hiding inside stores, dressing rooms and bathrooms until they were released. Some crowds thought they were still escaping an active shooter situation when they eventually evacuated. 

"There were thousands of people in the mall so you obviously have a delayed response or reaction," Buckner said. "Some of the stores went into their emergency protocol which means they locked some individuals within their store. So some individuals you saw (fleeing later) could've been the result of them letting them out."

Destiny USA is a six-story shopping and entertainment complex. It houses a 19-theater Regal Cinemas and a 209-room Embassy Suites hotel. Destiny USA says it is visited by more than 26 million people every year. 

Some of Buckner's family members were shopping in the mall thee or four hours prior to the shooting. 

"I certainly understand the panic people would have if your family members were in the mall when information came out," Buckner said. "Everything is safe now. Police are on scene and have the situation under control."

"We plan, we train for this incident."

Another person was stabbed but police are unsure if the stabbing is related to the shooting.

“People need to be careful,” Swiney said. "There’s a lot of sick individuals in the world and this can happen anywhere when you least expect it.” 

Pyramid Management Group plans to reopen Destiny USA on Saturday morning.

Police evacuated the Walmart in Camillus, Onondaga County, following a bomb threat earlier Friday. The Walmart is about 6 miles from Destiny USA. 

There was a stabbing on Black Friday last year at Destiny USA. Two men were stabbed after a dispute at the Macy's store in the 2018 incident.